Awareness Drills

Awareness Raising Drills

Tennis

Ball Awareness Drills

These drills result in focussed attention, reduced interference, improved 'watching the ball' without telling the student to watch the ball, conscious and unconscious learning - which may appear as spontaneous improvement in technique.

Remember that there are no hard and fast rules with awareness raising drill progressions - it's always a question of finding out what works best for the individual you are working with.

The drill set-up is worded for coaches, but is easily adapted if you want to experience the drills for yourself with a basket of balls, a practice wall or with a practice partner - just ask yourself the awareness raising questions and notice what happens.

Focus Of Awareness	Drill Set-Up / Info
Bounce	Say 'Bounce' when the ball bounces on the court. This can be with the student watching as the coach hits the ball up and lets it drop to the ground randomly, or as the coach rallies with another player, or as the player hits a ball fed to them by the coach or in a rally. Focus can be on the bounce on one side of the net, on the other side or on both sides of the net.
Catch	Say 'Catch' when you and/or your partner catch the ball.
Bounce-Catch	Say 'Bounce' when the ball bounces and 'Catch' when you and/or your partner catch the ball.
Bounce-Hit-Bounce	Coach feeds and pupil calls 'Bounce' when the ball bounces in front of them, 'Hit' when they hit and 'Bounce' when the ball bounces the other side of the net. This drill sets up an opportunity for the coach to unconsciously communicate trust in the student's ability to get the ball over the net as it pre-supposes success.
Bounce-Hit 1	Say 'Bounce' when the ball bounces your side of the net and 'Hit' when you hit the ball.
Bounce-Hit 2	Say 'Bounce' when the ball bounces the other side of the net and 'Hit when your partner hits the ball.
Bounce-Hit 3	Say 'Bounce' when the ball bounces and 'Hit' when the ball is hit on both sides of the net. This is perhaps the most effective progression of 'Bounce-Hit' in a match situation as it constantly occupies the conscious attention of the player allowing less room for interference.
Bounce-Hit Funnelling Focus	Whilst the student is calling Bounce-Hit ask, 'Which do you think you are calling the most accurately, the Bounce or the Hit?'
Bounce-Hit Focus vs Interference	Have a time-out and ask the student (with curiosity rather than judgement!) how much of their attention on a scale of 1-10 they thought was on saying Bounce-Hit during the exercise.
Bounce-Hit Voice	Ask 'What do you notice about your voice as you call bounce and hit?'
Spin	Ask 'What do you notice about the spin on the ball?' There's always a chance that an open question can produce unexpected new information for both student and coach (although it is unlikely for the coach to discover much more about spin, the student may have a useful insight about their perception which the coach was unaware of). It's also important to remember that if the student doesn't discover anything, it's OK because the question will inevitably have produced good focus on the ball and an increase in performance level with unconscious learning by Self 2.
Spin	Ask 'Which direction is the ball spinning?'
Spin	Ask 'How fast is the ball spinning?'
Spin	Ask 'Does the ball spin faster before or after the bounce?'
Spin	Ask 'Which way does the ball spin after the bounce when it has slice / topsipin?
Lines (a.k.a Seams) / Writing / Fluff on the ball	Ask 'What do you notice about the lines / writing on the ball? As with the open question for spin awareness above, be prepared for new information and remember that increased focus and performance result whether or not the student gets an answer.
Lines / Writing / Fluff on the ball	Ask 'How far away is the ball when you first start to see the lines / writing on the ball?'
Light / Shadow / Colour on the ball	Ask 'What do you notice about the light / shadow / colour on the ball?'
'Spot' on the ball	Ask 'See if you can see the 'spot' on the ball which sometimes appears when the lines spin in a certain way.' (You could also ask them at what stage during the flight of the ball can the spot be most easily seen and let them know that sometimes it appears as a small circle as well - if you want to give them a bit of extra help, the best time to spot the spot is just before a contact beside the body).
Path of the ball	Ask the student to trace the path of the ball as if it is leaving an imaginary trail behind it. The student can experiment with different lengths of trail and different types of trail (e.g. an imaginary ribbon of different lengths and colours or an imaginary mouse trail for computer lovers).
Flight of the ball	Ask the student to say 'Now' when the ball crosses the net, as it is coming towards them, as it is going away from them and then in both directions during a rally.
Trajectory of the ball	Ask the student to say 'Now' when the ball is at the highest part of its flight, as it is coming towards them, as it is going away from them and then in both directions during a rally.
Height over the net.	Ask the student to set a scale so that they can measure where the ball is in relation to the net. An example might be a scale of 1 to 3 above the net, taking up about 2 metres of air space. Then ask the student to monitor the height at which the ball crosses the net in each direction to enable increased awareness of sending and receiving.